4.1.7 Slow To Respond To SMB Network Discovery...

[arsenicrun]

Good news, everyone! (at least I hope)

I first attempted to do an OS reinstall by (a) powering off the device and (b) pressing the reset button with a paper clip for at least 5 seconds. I saw no LED lights at around 10 seconds, so I became worried and released the reset button. So that didn't work. I am definitely not willing to do a factory default reset at this time. I still have moderate faith in tech teams in general to resolve these bugs in future patches.

As I said before, I've got three ReadyNAS Duo's configured extremely similarly (apart from unique identifiers like device names), and I've upgraded two of them to 4.1.7, at which time both of the devices with the upgraded firmware always, always required at least 15 seconds, but usually 30+ seconds for SMB network discovery and enumeration completion.

What (seems to have) worked for me, just now:
In the HTTPS web configuration -
- Services, Discovery Services > I unchecked upnp, hit apply
- Services, Standard File Protocols > I unchecked HTTP and unchecked CIFS, hit apply
- (same) I checked CIFS, hit apply.

I booted several other computers on the network, some Windows XP SP3 and some Windows 7, and browsed to the device that I was tampering with. I pulled up an instant network share over CIFS from one machine and pulled up an instant mapped network drive on another computer (which is, in theory, the same mechanic at work). I tested browsing to the other ReadyNAS device that also was upgraded, but untampered, and it required the normal 30 seconds to find. As this was a good sign, I then toggled the CIFS service on the second device and tested it with a Windows 7 laptop that had not been connected for a few days, and alas, both shares came up instantly. Looks promising.

EDIT:
The bad news - I went ahead and tested the durability of this fix surviving a reboot, and my tests have said that no, it certainly does not.
The good news -Toggling CIFS after the reboot resolved it again temporarily, though.

tl;dr - toggle the CIFS service on the ReadyNAS and they suddenly become instantly discovered.

[IanSav]

Hi Jedi Knight,

I still am not able to reproduce the issue in house. I tried with Disk Spindown Mode. I tired with Jumbo Frame. If you could try with Frimware reinstall again and test with Direct connect (the ReadyNAS to PC) to rule out any possible switch/router issue. I also would advise rebooting the Clients before doing any test. If you are still having an issue, please open the tech support ticket (post the ticket info here) so that we can contact each of you and try to debug your system.

If anyone have same issue, please open a new post.

Apart from the password reset what other, if any, changes are made to the ReadyNAS on OS/Firmware reinstall? Can *all* the changes be recovered/fixed by recovering a configuration backup?

I have already offered VNC access to a PC, Slingbox access to a PVR and ReadyNAS access to the 4.1.7 DUO for Netgear engineers to explore the issue. Are you asking me to re-offer the access via a support ticket?

Regards,
Ian.

[IanSav]

Hi,

Following from Jedi Knight's request I used the System > Update > Remote process to re-fetch and repeat the firmware upgrade of my DUO. The unit just completed the process but the share enumeration is just as slow as before.

I don't want to do the O/S Reinstall process until I get confirmation of what changes and/or losses I may suffer. This NAS is in production and I don't want it to suffer any extended downtime.

Regards,
Ian.

[arsenicrun]

I am getting the impression that the lack of response to the questions about downgrading to 4.1.6 means that the answer isn't really clear.

Ian,

Assuming you tend to leave your ReadyNAS Duo turned on for eternities at a time like I do, toggling the CIFS service on and off seems like a useful (although far from acceptable) fix. I've had instant-access all evening, and I am also fortunate enough to have mine connected to a battery backup so that I doubt I will have to worry about this until I am forced to reboot.

Jedi Knight,

This behavior suggests that a change in the way the new firmware boots the device has a damaging effect on the CIFS/SMB discovery mechanism. Please forward this issue to the appropriate team such that we can all enjoy a fix as soon as possible.

Thanks,
Sean

[jeremydo]

quick update about my experience with this so far.
my problem was exacerbated by having run out of space on the root volume (minidlna had created a massive database file which made all sorts of other things fail). After deleting that file, the performance problems are still there, but some other failures I was seeing have gone away.

anyway - when it comes to network "discovery" - ie: being able to enumerate network services exported by the nas, using bonjour works fine for me. ie: it registers quickly, i can connect to it quickly.

However, that is just the discovery part. When it comes to enumeration of the directories and general network access of the filesystem, things are still quite slow for me. I have tried the smb service and also the afp service separately, and get approximately the same performance from both (ie: unacceptably slow).

Will post more info if I find anything interesting.

[IanSav]

Hi Sean,

I am getting the impression that the lack of response to the questions about downgrading to 4.1.6 means that the answer isn't really clear.

Or Netgear are concerned about the process of reverting to the previous firmware.

Assuming you tend to leave your ReadyNAS Duo turned on for eternities at a time like I do, toggling the CIFS service on and off seems like a useful (although far from acceptable) fix. I've had instant-access all evening, and I am also fortunate enough to have mine connected to a battery backup so that I doubt I will have to worry about this until I am forced to reboot.

I have just verified your observations. I toggled CIFS off and then on (within a few seconds) and I can now find and access shares on the DUO from my PVRs. As you said, this is a hack but it does help with the immediate problem.

Hopefully this will give the Netgear engineers something more with which to work.

Regards,
Ian.

[Berkhout]

Toggle CIFFS off and then on does the trick here also. But it is of course a workaround.
Well lets see what the Netgear boys can do.

greetings Willem

[Jedi Knight]

Guys,

We have been looking into this issue in-house. The only thing I can think of is was somehow samba daemon become unresponsive after reboot (or) doesn't get started correctly (however, if you restart the services by manually, it works fine). So I am not sure unresponsive or doesn't get started correctly due to smb.conf setting in your individual system.

Some of you have an issue with full root, so that update my not work properly. So I would suggest reinstalling the firmware.

OS Reinstall doesn't touch your data volume, however, it helps reset some configuration files that is being corrupted or need to update.

[WSJ]

Good news, everyone! (at least I hope)
Toggle the CIFS service on the ReadyNAS [off and on, again] and they suddenly become instantly discovered.

Many thanks for this advice - you've saved my day.Yes, it lasts only until the next ReadyNAS reboot.
But that's acceptable for the time being (i.e. until the next firmware update will fix the bug).

[IanSav]

Hi,

The work-around works quite well for temporarily restoring services. Have the Jedi team made any progress in discovering the underlying cause and hence providing a permanent fix?

Regards,
Ian.

[Berkhout]

Hello,

Radio silence??? Any news from the Netgear boys?


greetings Berkhout

[WSJ]

The only thing I can think of is was somehow samba daemon become unresponsive after reboot (or) doesn't get started correctly (however, if you restart the services by manually, it works fine).

Any news / updates on the topic?
It seems that many ReadyNAS customers are facing those performance issues after applying the new firmware.
O.k - now it's christmas time. But the issue has been reported quite a while before the winter break.
I'd like to know if someone is already / still working on the issue. Is the root cause analysis completed?
Are you already working on a patch?

[Nyarlathotep]

+1 for the disable/re-enable "trick." I bought my ReadyNAS Duo recently and never used any firmware other than 4.1.7, so I have no idea how the speed "should" have been, but I did notice that it was slow. After disabling and re-enabling CIFS, network discovery is much faster, even over an OpenVPN connection through a tethered cell phone (I'm currently on a train).

[IanSav]

Hi Jedi Knight,

Following on from your request above, and your PMs to me, I made some time to perform an OS Reinstall. I regret to inform you that this has made *no* difference to this problem.

The stop/start of the CIFS service has once again saved the day and restored the NAS to a working state.

Regards,
Ian.

[WSJ]

See also the posting of "Nyarlathotep":
He has bought a new ReadyNAS Duo with firmware 4.1.7 - facing the same issues. So, it's not a matter of upgrades. The firmware version 4.1.7 is buggy - and hopefully there'll be soon a bugfix.

@Ian: Thank you for that information - so, it's not worth to perform an OS reinstall.